The pro-AKP media (and the AKP has taken over just about all of the newspapers and TV stations in the country) is saying that Bilal Erdoğan has gone to Italy but the visit is connected with his doctorate studies.

Tim Drayton wrote:The pro-AKP media (and the AKP has taken over just about all of the newspapers and TV stations in the country) is saying that Bilal Erdoğan has gone to Italy but the visit is connected with his doctorate studies.

Sabah also said that is was "normal procedure" to drag the corpses of PKK militants on the back of security vehicles.

Erdogan et al, are shitting their pants right now, not long left till November.

Tim Drayton wrote:The pro-AKP media (and the AKP has taken over just about all of the newspapers and TV stations in the country) is saying that Bilal Erdoğan has gone to Italy but the visit is connected with his doctorate studies.

Sabah also said that is was "normal procedure" to drag the corpses of PKK militants on the back of security vehicles.

Erdogan et al, are shitting their pants right now, not long left till November.

My only fear is that they'll find a way to rig the election, otherwise it's over and the future of the secular republic looks secure.

Tim Drayton wrote:The pro-AKP media (and the AKP has taken over just about all of the newspapers and TV stations in the country) is saying that Bilal Erdoğan has gone to Italy but the visit is connected with his doctorate studies.

Sabah also said that is was "normal procedure" to drag the corpses of PKK militants on the back of security vehicles.

Erdogan et al, are shitting their pants right now, not long left till November.

My only fear is that they'll find a way to rig the election, otherwise it's over and the future of the secular republic looks secure.

My father studied in Ankara in the late 60's. According to him Turkey was not as backwards as it is today, back then. They need to find peace with their identity.

Tim Drayton wrote:The pro-AKP media (and the AKP has taken over just about all of the newspapers and TV stations in the country) is saying that Bilal Erdoğan has gone to Italy but the visit is connected with his doctorate studies.

Sabah also said that is was "normal procedure" to drag the corpses of PKK militants on the back of security vehicles.

Erdogan et al, are shitting their pants right now, not long left till November.

My only fear is that they'll find a way to rig the election, otherwise it's over and the future of the secular republic looks secure.

My father studied in Ankara in the late 60's. According to him Turkey was not as backwards as it is today, back then. They need to find peace with their identity.

You're right, and one has to respect the right of all peoples to self-determination. However, the assault on the secular republic that started in the 1980's was not a democratic process. It was all based on private schools and student hostels run by the Gulen movement - and private schools that charged no fees and only accepted their own selected students - and infiltrating various parts of the state with their indoctrinated graduates. This was a project that needed a vast amount of financing - think of the cost of running a private school with no fees - and it was all bankrolled by the Gulf states, in my opinion and that of many others. Putting an Islamist party into government only came after they had firmly taken control of the state. If the two partners in the venture, the Gulenists and Erdoğan/the AKP had not fallen out badly two or three years ago, they may well have succeeded, but now it all appears to be unraveling. Let us not count our chickens before they're hatched, but it looks like it will all be over in about a month. Fuat Avni claims that Erdoğan the father is also making plans to flee if the election does not go his way. It has long been rumoured that he has a bolt hole ready in Malaysia. We'll see.

The businessman Rıza Sarraf, who lives in Turkey and is originally from Iran, and who was heavily implicated in the December 2013 corruption investigations, is reported to have gone to Dubai (where he also has citizenship). It would seem that, one by one, the rats are deserting the sinking ship. I wonder if the trickle will turn into a rush by the date of the election?Meanwhile, it's still all rumour, but Bilal Erdoğan is said to have settled in the Italian town of Bologna and to have put his children in a school there.

Nokta magazine has published the minutes of a meeting held by the ruling AKP to discuss the party’s strategy for the November repeat elections. A lot of revealing comments were made at the meeting, including the one by Mücahit Arslan:

observer wrote:As you rightly observe, the electorate did not give Erdoğan a mandate to change the constitution. He has not changed it.

If you were more specific about how you believe Erdoğan is "pulling the strings behind the scenes" I could consider it. I'd ask you to consider whether or not there is more than a little pulling of strings out of the public gaze in any political set up - the EU being a prime candidate for consideration.

I'd agree that all is not "hunky dory" in Turkey, but in Erdoğan's favour is a greater acknowledgement of Kurdish rights than at any other time in the Republic's history - not perfect but you have to carry the electorate with you - and the presence of ISIS next door with some terrorists most probably mixed in with the many genuine refugees now in Turkey. It's not the first time that Turkey has acted as a safe haven for Kurdish refugees. Remember Gulf War 1.

The latest outrage from Erdoğan is his public reaction to a decision by the Turkish Constitutional Court, the highest court in the land, with reference the ludicrous show trial against journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül:

The Constitutional Court may have ruled along these lines. I will just remain silent about the ruling it has passed but I am not obliged to accept it. I neither comply with nor respect the ruling that it has passed.

If you understand anything at all about the constitutional order of the Republic of Turkey, you would realise that this is both an outrage and a serious threat to the rule of law in Turkey. According to his constitutional role, the president has no business commenting on a Constitutional Court decision in this manner and, given that on paper the separation of powers still exists and the judiciary is supposed to be independent (although everybody knows that this is no longer true), he cannot refuse to accept a ruling by the highest court in the land. If you cannot take off your rose-tinted glasses even now and see that Erdoğan is acting like a fascist dictator, then you are beyond hope!

Tim Drayton wrote: ... and a serious threat to the rule of law in Turkey. ...

Indeed this is extremely worrying and is a serious threat to the rule of law in Turkey. One can only hope that it 'backfires' on Erdogan and ends up leading to a diminishing of his power and influence within Turkey.

A national president, refusing to recognise the ruling of the constitutional court in their country, leading to a general break down of law and order. Why does that feel like deja vu to me ?

Tim Drayton wrote: ... and a serious threat to the rule of law in Turkey. ...

Indeed this is extremely worrying and is a serious threat to the rule of law in Turkey. One can only hope that it 'backfires' on Erdogan and ends up leading to a diminishing of his power and influence within Turkey.

A national president, refusing to recognise the ruling of the constitutional court in their country, leading to a general break down of law and order. Why does that feel like deja vu to me ?

Recent talk of Gül and Arınç trying to start an opposition current within the AKP is encouraging. I get more and more certain that Erdoğan has lost his mind and current developments in both the Kurdish problem and Syria policy are taking the Republic of Turkey in the direction of disaster (there is an interview today in Turkish with a retired former senior ranking official in the Foreign Ministry who talks in stark terms about the disastrous position the country is now in: http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/koseyazisi ... rmez_.html ). He has to be stopped.